The present disclosure generally relates to the field of vehicles. The present disclosure relates more specifically relates to wireless control systems for a vehicle and a remote electronic system in communication with the vehicle.
Conventional systems for controlling appliances and remote devices, such as garage door openers, security gates, home alarms, and lighting systems, use individual remote controls to operate a respective appliance and/or device. With such a conventional system, it is difficult to control multiple remote devices, much less consolidate operation of the remote devices into a single, controllable system. For example, garage door opener mechanisms open and close a garage door in response to a radio frequency control signal. The control signal is typically generated and transmitted from a remote control that is sold with the garage opener. The control signal has a preset carrier frequency and control code such that the garage door opener mechanism is responsive only to the remote control issuing the associated control signal. A problem associated with this type of system is that the door opener must receive a specific predetermined control signal in order to be operated. That is, each appliance and device must receive a specific predetermined control signal. Therefore, a user wishing to control multiple devices is required to have multiple remote controls.
Communication systems currently exist which enable multiple appliances and devices to be controlled by a central or single remote device. One such system is HOMELINK®, owned by Johnson Controls, Inc., in which a trainable transceiver is able to “learn” characteristics of received control signals such that the trainable transceiver may subsequently generate and transmit a signal having the learned characteristics to a remotely controlled device. For example, one such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,593.
A user trains the trainable transceiver by, for example, transmitting a signal from a remote controller in the vicinity of the trainable transceiver. The trainable transceiver learns the carrier frequency and data code of the signal and stores this code for later retransmission. In this manner, the trainable transceiver can be conveniently mounted within a vehicle interior element (e.g., visor, instrument panel, overhead console, etc.) and can be configured to operate one or more remote electronic systems.